A refrigerator unit is an apparatus intended to store food items at low temperatures. The refrigerator unit may store foods in a frozen or refrigerated state according to the type of food intended to be stored.
The interior of the refrigerator unit is cooled by cold air that is constantly supplied. The cold air is constantly generated through a heat exchanging operation with a refrigerant based on a refrigeration cycle. The cycle includes a process of compression-condensation-expansion-evaporation that are sequentially performed. The cold air supplied to the inside of the refrigerator unit is evenly transferred by convection to store food, drink, and other items within the refrigerator unit at desired temperatures.
In general, a main body of the refrigerator unit has a rectangular, hexahedral shape which is open at a front surface. The front surface may provide access to a refrigeration compartment and a freezer compartment located within the body of the refrigerator unit. Further, hinged doors may be fitted to the front side of the refrigerator body in order to selectively open and/or close openings to the refrigeration compartment and the freezer compartment. In addition, a number of drawers, racks, shelves, storage boxes, and the like may be provided in the refrigeration compartment and the freezer compartment within the refrigerator unit that are configured for optimally storing various foods, drinks, and other items within a storage space inside the refrigerator unit.
Conventionally, refrigerator units were configured as a top mount type in which a freezer compartment is positioned above a refrigeration compartment. Recently, bottom freezer type refrigerator units position the freezer compartment below the refrigeration compartment to enhance user convenience. In the bottom freezer type refrigerator unit, the more frequently used refrigeration compartment is advantageously positioned at the top so that a user may conveniently access the compartment without bending over at the waist, as previously required by the top mount type refrigerator unit. The less frequently used freezer compartment is positioned at the bottom.
However, a bottom freezer type refrigerator unit may lose its design benefits when a user wants to access the lower freezer compartment on a more frequent basis. For example, prepared ice that is stored in the freezer compartment may be a popular item accessed frequently by a particular user. In a bottom freezer type refrigerator unit, since the freezer compartment is positioned below the refrigeration compartment, the user would have to bend over at the waist in order to open the freezer compartment door to access the ice.
In order to solve such a problem, bottom freezer type refrigerators may include a dispenser configured for dispensing ice that is provided in a refrigeration compartment door. In this case, the ice dispenser is also positioned in the upper portion of the refrigerator unit, and more specifically is located above the freezer compartment. In this case, an ice maker for generating ice may be provided in the refrigeration compartment door or in the interior of the refrigeration compartment.
For example, in a bottom freezer type refrigerator having an ice making device in the refrigeration compartment door, cold air that has been produced by an evaporator is divided and discharged both into the freezer compartment and into the refrigeration compartment. Here, cold air that was discharged into the freezer compartment flows to the ice making device via a cold air supply duct arranged in a sidewall of the body of the refrigerator unit, and then freezes water while circulating inside the ice making device. Thereafter, the cold air is discharged from the ice making device into the refrigeration compartment via a cold air restoration duct arranged in the sidewall of the body of the refrigerator unit, so the cold air can reduce the temperature inside the refrigeration compartment.
However, when the cold air of the freezer compartment is introduced into the ice making device via the cold air supply duct, a large amount of cold air may be discharged from the ice making device into the refrigeration compartment via the cold air restoration duct without being used to make ice cubes. This may reduce the efficiency of the ice making device, and negatively affect the overall performance of the ice making device and/or the refrigerator unit.
What is needed is an efficient way to make ice within a refrigerator unit.